In this book Hessen presents an uncompromising defense of the right of corporation to exist and function freely. He offers a reinterpretation of the nature and historic origins of corporate enterprise, and a spirited challenge to the current widespread condemnation of giant corporations. Today Ralph Nader is recognized as the most vocal critic of the corporation. Hessen outlines and examines Nader's criticisms—namely, that giant corporations victimize shareholders, crush smaller competitors and overcharge consumers. He also analyzes Nader's proposals for remedial legislation: Nader wants Congress to require giant corporations to make fundamental changes in their internal structure and operating methods, such as stripping corporate officers of their authority to make decisions, and breaking up any corporation whose share of the market exceeds 12 percent. Among the other issues Hessen analyzes are: how did the idea originate that corporations are "creatures of the state" and is this idea valid? Are giant corporations "private governments," and are the officers self-perpetuating oligarchs? Is "corporate democracy" a worthwhile goal? Why are existing state incorporation laws permissive, and do they wrongfully favor corporate officers at the expense of shareholders? Is federal chartering of corporations necessary, as Ralph Nader claims? Do giant corporations possess monopoly power and should the antitrust laws be reinforced?
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The objective case for the corporation,
By
This review is from: In Defense of the Corporation (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION) (Paperback)
"The essence of capitalism is the inviolability of individual rights, including one's right to use or invest one's wealth as one chooses, and one's right to associate with others for any peaceful purpose and under any terms of association that are acceptable to all parties concerned." - Robert HessenI first came into contact with Robert Hessen's writings in the pages of *The Objectivist Newsletter*, to which he contributed two articles on the Industrial Revolution in 1962. I also knew that his book *Steel Titan* (1975), was the major source Burton Folsom used for his chapter on Charles Schwab in *The Myth of the Robber Barons*. So when I opened my copy of his *In Defense of the Corporation*, I knew I would be in good company. The book can be roughly subdivided into two halves. The first half is mostly an historical argument against the "concession theory" of the corporation, showing that the conception of the corporation as a "creature of the state" operating by privilege is an anachronism inherited by mistake from the feudal era. On the contrary, Hessen defends what he calls the "inherence theory", which shows the corporation to be reducible to the individual rights of its owners. I was particularly interested in the refutation of the attacks on the so-called "privilege" of limited liability, which can even be found in the writings of such a conservative historian as Clarence B. Carson. Hessen shows that there are two kinds of limited liability. The first one, limited financial liability, can be explained quite simply as an implied contract between the corporation and its creditors. And the second one, limited liability for torts, is shown to be perfectly reasonable as far as shareholders are concerned. The second part of the book is a defense of the freedom of incorporation against attacks made by Ralph Nader in two books he published in the 1970s. Nader advocated the federal incorporation of "large" corporations and the turning of their right to engage in interstate commerce into a privilege which the federal government could then use as a stick to make them comply with socialist legislation. Hessen brilliantly exposes the illogic and arbitrariness of these recommendations, and casts doubt on the value of Nader's scholarship by demonstrating how he resorted to "phantom footnotes" ("that is, citations which prove to be unverifiable and either bogus or deceptive") and used unreliable sources to support his claims. Against Nader, whom he shows to be another modern disciple of Rousseau, Hessen concludes that corporations "are created and sustained by freedom of association and contract, that the source of freedom is not governmental permission but individual rights, and that these rights are not suddenly forfeited when a business grows beyond some arbitrarily defined size." Robert Hessen, who recognizes his "intellectual indebtedness to Ayn Rand", refers to her *Virtue of Selfishness* and quotes from her *Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal*, has written here an essentialized and conceptually clear defense of the corporation from the perspective of individual rights.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
